The Weather Channel and its ilk were trumpeting winter warnings for North Georgia again, so as I worked on Friday I kept a weather eye [pun intended] on the radar. There had been a truly spectacular sunrise earlier and of course the words "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning" were duly noted. But it stayed clear until afternoon commute. I arrived home, dragged the garbage can back next to the house, as they were so late this morning even James wasn't there to pull it in, and as I approached the front walk, a single, perfectly-formed snowflake drifted by my eyes to land in the bushes. Other little snowflake stars were drifting down as I took Tucker for his walk, and the weather was doing a number on my sinuses, so I took some ibuprofin and laid down until James got home.

It was sleeting as we left the house with the power chair in tow, but we made it to Fresh2Order with no trouble; there is nothing better on a winter night than their chicken vegetable soup, which is thick enough to be called a stew. The sleet had completely stopped and the sky was even clearing when we finished. Having nothing else we wanted to do, we went home and watched Space Battleship Yamato, which I ordered a few days ago. Very snazzy special effects, and I enjoyed how they made Yuki a crack fighter pilot and the new look of the Gamilas people and even how Analyzer was worked in (although I did say facitiously "Awww, his iPod sacrified itself for him.") I like the little tributes to the animated series, like Dr. Sato's cat...and the doctor is a woman in this version! Since this was based on the original movie and not the television series, the ending was very traditionally Japanese.

Saturday morning we slept so late it there was barely time for James to have a small bit to eat before he headed out for lunch with the guys and his club meeting. It was a warmish (low 50s) day, but very grey, so I just scrubbed the bathroom floor and did some tidying in the bedroom, but mostly I sat and tried to catch up on my "Country Living" magazines—I had gotten way behind on my digital reading—and watched a cute Christmas special that was still on the DVR, Mr. Stink. It was the story of Chloe, who is bullied in school as well as by her mother at home. Her mom is an up-and-coming conservative who wants to stand for Parliament while her overachieving little sister is always going to classes. The family's last name is "Crumb," but mum insists on pronouncing it as "Croome," alà Hyacinth Bucket. Meanwhile her nebbish dad has been sacked but is too afraid to tell the mother. Chloe befriends a very smelly tramp who calls himself "Mr. Stink" and his little dog Duchess, and the story is set in motion when Chloe invites him to stay overnight in their garden shed due to the cold. It was kind of sweet and cute, and not filled with squeaky-voiced characters like American children's specials.

Incidentally, mum was played by Sheridan Smith, who is the voice of Lucy Miller in the Paul McGann Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories.

I also set up the DVR to record Murphy Brown and Night Court, since I always forget they're on, and noticed that another channel shows Barney Miller, and that the Ovation channel has reached episodes of Murdoch Mysteries that we haven't seen yet and that Netflix doesn't have. So I've set them to record, too.

We had supper at Hibachi Grill and then walked around Barnes & Noble for a while. Nothing I wanted, just enjoy being among the books. Later I chatted some with Emma.

Today we slept in again, had a breakfast that was closer to lunch, then went to Petsmart and Publix and Aldi. For the rest of the afternoon, almost caught up on Hawaii Five-0, ate supper, and then went on to Alaska, the Last Frontier. It was a grey day again and I've spent most of it with a headache; I must get new glasses—these are hurting like crazy more and more.

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It is one year ago today we had to have Willow put to sleep. We miss you, little girl.